Queer, Jewish, and theater-themed: What’s not to like?
At eighth grader Lacey’s new school, a couple in the fall play kiss during the final performance—it’s a student-led tradition that goes back decades.
When 13-year-old Lacey Lowenstein is cast as Kim in Bye Bye Birdie, she realizes she has duets with three potential kissing partners. Her new friends, Isa and Nell, make it their mission to help her pick who to kiss: bro-ey Andre or shy Jaden. But the co-star she really wants to kiss is fellow new kid Violet. Still, Lacey can’t stop thinking about the last day of seventh grade, when something happened with her lifelong best friend, Grace, who’s pansexual. Meanwhile, Lacey’s bat mitzvah fell through the cracks as her family planned their cross-country move. She connects with the supportive Rabbi Herrera and plans to celebrate her bat mitzvah the day after the play’s final performance. Lacey is a relatably flawed protagonist, choosing to impress mean girl Nell even when it means hurting people she cares for. She learns her lesson and connects it to her d’var Torah, or bat mitzvah speech. Lacey grew up with supportive queer role models—Grace’s moms. Still, when she comes out, her own father is dismissive and expresses concern that she’ll be socially excluded. While he later apologizes, this plotline could have been further fleshed out to make his change of heart feel more earned. Many central characters present white. Rabbi Herrera and Isa are cued Latine, and Jaden has dark skin.
Queer, Jewish, and theater-themed: What’s not to like? (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9780593695135
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Brava!
From award winner Telgemeier (Smile, 2010), a pitch-perfect graphic novel portrayal of a middle school musical, adroitly capturing the drama both on and offstage.
Seventh-grader Callie Marin is over-the-moon to be on stage crew again this year for Eucalyptus Middle School’s production of Moon over Mississippi. Callie's just getting over popular baseball jock and eighth-grader Greg, who crushed her when he left Callie to return to his girlfriend, Bonnie, the stuck-up star of the play. Callie's healing heart is quickly captured by Justin and Jesse Mendocino, the two very cute twins who are working on the play with her. Equally determined to make the best sets possible with a shoestring budget and to get one of the Mendocino boys to notice her, the immensely likable Callie will find this to be an extremely drama-filled experience indeed. The palpably engaging and whip-smart characterization ensures that the charisma and camaraderie run high among those working on the production. When Greg snubs Callie in the halls and misses her reference to Guys and Dolls, one of her friends assuredly tells her, "Don't worry, Cal. We’re the cool kids….He's the dork." With the clear, stylish art, the strongly appealing characters and just the right pinch of drama, this book will undoubtedly make readers stand up and cheer.
Brava! (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-32698-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
SEEN & HEARD
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